Trailer Tracker: The Host and Warm Bodies

Alien invasion movies never go out of style. Invasion of the Body Snatchers alone has been made four times, in 1956 and 1978, again in 1993 as Body Snatchers, and once more in 2007 as The Invasion.

The latest take on the subject is The Host, which opens March 29, 2013. It stars young Saoirse Ronan (Hannah, The Way Back, The Lovely Bones) as Melanie Stryder (nice heroic name), one of the last true humans on a planet that’s been taken over by some kind of – let’s be blunt here – body-snatching invasion.

“This is the beginning of a love story,” she says in the trailer, which features Melanie and Jared (Max Irons) kissing and cuddling in rain-lit scenes that look to have been lifted from outtakes from The Notebook. “And that might not seem like such a big deal except for one thing.”

And that is? “This is the future.” (Who talks that way, other than maybe Rod Serling? Don’t most people think they live in the present?) “Humanity is all but extinct. We have been invaded by another species, who erase our minds to take our bodies. But there are a few of us left who still fight back.”

Simple enough set-up, helped by the fact that all the invaded humans have bright blue glowing eyes. And an interesting pedigree, since the source material is a book by Stephenie Meyer, whom you may remember from a series called Twilight. The Host is the first book in a proposed trilogy, so if the film goes well, expect body-snatching sequels.

Body invasion doesn’t get much simpler than a zombie epidemic, which is the basis for Warm Bodies, opening in February. “What am I doing with my life?” moans the lead character, played by Nicholas Hoult. “I just want to connect. Why can’t I connect with people?” Then it comes to him. “Oh, right. It’s because I’m dead.”

His character knows only that his name starts with an R, and that he’s just fallen for a girl named Julie (Teresa Palmer). Hmm, shades of star-crossed lovers, mayhap? The trailer shows R coming back to life, turning away from the zombie hobby of eating brains, and reconnecting with regular, non-zom folks.

Like The Host, Warm Bodies takes its inspiration from a novel, this one from 2010 by Isaac Marion. And like The Host, there’s a Twilight connection, with the film being produced by Summit Entertainment, which also made the Twilight films. No signs of sequel potential yet, but everyone knows you can’t keep a good zombie down. Well, except with a head shot.